Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: Huge screen, high resolution cameras and (finally) 5G

Samsung’s new Galaxy S20 phones have been introduced, and the three models are all a very nice step up from last year’s Galaxy S10s. They all come ready for 5G networks.

I visited Samsung’s headquarters in Plano last week and got some hands-on time with the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus and Galaxy Ultra.

I’ve been testing a Galaxy S20 Ultra for the last week.

Although I’ll mention all the models, this review will concentrate on the Ultra.

Cameras

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that people will take more pictures if they carry a camera around with them.

I’m a former newspaper photographer, and I used to keep a small point-and-shoot camera in my computer bag because you never know when you’ll want to snap a photo.

Now we all have smartphones and everyone carries a camera all the time.

Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat probably wouldn’t exist without smartphone cameras.

The S20 Ultra has upped the flagship phone camera wars with a three-lens system that features a 108-megapixel mode on the main camera sensor and a 40-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Ultra has three lenses: Telephoto, wide-angle and ultrawide.

The telephoto lens can zoom to 10x (optical) and it can use artificial intelligence to digitally zoom up to 100x — something Samsung calls Space Zoom.

To get the super-high-resolution 108 megapixel mode, you have to select it from the aspect ratio setting on the main camera screen. Note that you can only shoot with the wide-angle lens for 108 megapixel photos (not ultrawide or telephoto).

Why do we need 108 megapixels? We don’t, really, but it allows you to get more detail when you crop into the image.

You really need a tripod or some other support when zooming in more than 10x. Trying to use the 100x zoom setting without camera support is disappointing but not unexpected. It also helps those super zoom shots if the subject is still.

All three S20 models can shoot 8K video at 24 frames per second. Each frame of that 8K video is a 33MP still image, which means you can shoot 8K video and pick out your favourite frames and save them as really high-resolution photos.

5G-enabled

My Galaxy S20 Ultra came with a Verizon SIM installed, and I was able to use the Verizon 5G towers in neighborhoods in and north of downtown Dallas.

The 5G variant in use by Verizon in Dallas is called Ultra Wideband 5G.

The signal must not travel very far from the towers, but the phone’s display lets you know what type of network you are using.

The 5G networks being installed in this country come in two variants — above 6Hz (called mmWave) and below 6Hz (called Sub6).

The S20 5G and S20+ 5G use Sub6. The S20 Ultra uses Sub6 but also includes the faster millimetre Wave.

I did a speed test on UWB5G and found download speeds of 975 megabits per second, which is just under gigabit (1,000Mbps). This is the kind of speeds we were all promised from 5G, and I’m quite pleased with the results.

Now that Samsung has fired the first shot by including 5G in all three models of the S20, I expect Apple to follow suit with its next iPhone release.

Specs

The spec list of the S20 Ultra is long and very nice.

It has a 6.9-inch QuadHD+ display with a resolution of 3,200 x 1,440 pixels for a pixel density of 511 pixels per inch.

The screen has a fantastic 120Hz refresh rate, which means the screen refreshes twice as fast as most smartphones for very fluid scrolling and graphics response. Note that the 120Hz refresh rate is not available at the screen’s highest resolution.

The S20 Ultra has a 5,000 milliamp-hour battery, which is as big as I’ve encountered on a phone. I didn’t come close to running it down at the end of the day. The phone has Fast Wireless 2.0 charging, Super Fast wired charging and Wireless PowerShare, which lets the S20 Ultra wirelessly charge other phones.

The Ultra runs Android 10 and comes with 128 or 512 gigabytes of internal storage. It has a microSD card slot to increase the storage capacity to up to 1.5 terabytes.

It runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor with 12 gigabytes of RAM (16GB in the model with 512GB storage).

It has 802.11ax Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and supports Samsung Pay.

It can be unlocked via face recognition or an in-screen fingerprint reader. Both worked well.

The Ultra can take a 30-minute dunk in up 5 feet of water.

It is also eSim capable, which means you don’t need a physical SIM card if your carrier supports eSIM. This helps you easily switch carriers.

Pricing and availability

The S20 Ultra comes in Cosmic Black or Cosmic Grey and starts at $1,399. 

The Samsung S20 Ultra is new, but it feels familiar.

It’s the biggest phone I’ve carried around on a daily basis and it still (barely) fits in my back pocket, which is where I keep my phone.

The screen is extremely bright and clear and a joy to use. The buttons are all on the right side, which makes one-handed use easier for someone with big hands like me. If you have small hands, this is not a one-hander. The camera hole in the screen is not very obtrusive at all and I didn’t miss the headphone jack, but I can see where others might.

The star here is the camera. The camera bump on the back side is on the large side, but I didn’t find it hard to use on a flat surface.

Putting it in a case makes the bump a non-issue.

Calls sounded clear and connected quickly. The onboard speakers are above average.

The S20 Ultra is an expensive phone at $1,599.99 for the most expensive model, but it compares with the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which costs $1,449 at its most expensive configuration.

Prices are what the market will bear, and I think the addition of more RAM and a 5G modem more than make up for the price difference.

For power users, especially Android power users, the S20 Ultra is the phone for you.

Pros: 5G, tonnes of RAM, 108MP photos and big zoom.

Cons: Expensive

Bottom line: The S20 Ultra has everything I want in a flagship phone.

By Jim Rossman